# MSP Hiring

Successful MSP hiring is rarely about finding the person with the most certifications. In the world of managed services, technical skill is the baseline, but commercial awareness, communication, and cultural alignment are what actually drive profitability and client retention. If you hire someone who is brilliant with a command line but cannot explain a security risk to a non-technical business.

Successful **MSP hiring** is rarely about finding the person with the most certifications. In the world of managed services, technical skill is the baseline, but commercial awareness, communication, and cultural alignment are what actually drive profitability and client retention. If you hire someone who is brilliant with a command line but cannot explain a security risk to a non-technical business owner, you haven't solved a problem; you’ve just created a communication gap.

When you are building an MSP, your team is your product. Unlike software companies that sell code, you sell expertise, reliability, and trust. Getting your hiring strategy right means moving away from reactive "panic hiring" when a technician leaves and moving toward a structured process that identifies people capable of representing your brand in a client's boardroom. **MSP hiring** should be treated as a core business function, just as vital as your sales pipeline or your stack standardisation.

## What is MSP Hiring?
**MSP hiring** is the strategic process of identifying, vetting, and onboarding professionals who possess the unique blend of technical proficiency, multitasking ability, and client-facing communication required to work in a multi-tenant service environment. Unlike internal IT roles, MSP roles require engineers to context-switch between different client environments, budgets, and business goals throughout a single day.

To hire successfully, an MSP must look for:

- **Technical Versatility:** The ability to support diverse stacks (Microsoft 365, Azure, various firewalls, and backup solutions).
- **Commercial Awareness:** Understanding that a "fix" must also be cost-effective and aligned with the client’s business needs.
- **Soft Skills:** The ability to manage a frustrated client during a server outage with empathy and clarity.

| Feature | MSP Hiring Focus | Internal IT Hiring Focus |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Environment** | Multi-tenant, high variety | Single environment, deep focus |
| **Pace** | Fast-paced, billable hours matter | Project-based, steady state |
| **Communication** | External clients (Business owners) | Internal colleagues (End users) |
| **Growth Metric** | Profitability and Retention | Operational uptime |

## The Commercial Reality of Team Building
Luis Navarro, the founder of MSP Agenda, built Totality Services from a small team to a highly profitable MSP serving over 150 clients. One of the biggest lessons from that journey, which led to a successful eight-figure acquisition, was that **MSP hiring** is the engine of scalability. If you hire poorly, your senior leadership spends all their time "firefighting" internal mistakes rather than focusing on growth and high-level strategy.

Every new hire should be viewed through a commercial lens. Ask yourself: *Does this person help us move toward a more standardised, efficient service, or will they introduce "hero culture" where they are the only one who knows how a specific client's site works?* Hero culture is the enemy of a scalable MSP. You need team players who document their work, follow your processes, and understand that their job is to make the business—and the client—more secure and efficient.

### Moving Beyond the Technical Resume
It is easy to get distracted by a long list of certifications. While CCNA or Microsoft Fundamentals are great, they don't tell you how an engineer will react when a client’s CEO is calling because their email is down ten minutes before a board meeting. In **MSP hiring**, the "how" is often more important than the "what."

We recommend looking for "T-Shaped" individuals: those who have a broad understanding of IT infrastructure but a deep expertise in one or two specific areas. This allows your team to be flexible enough to handle daily tickets while having internal "Subject Matter Experts" for complex project work or security escalations.

## Defining Your Ideal Candidate Profile
Before you post a job ad, you must know what you are looking for. An MSP with 10 employees has different needs than one with 50. In the early stages, you need generalists who can do a bit of everything—from desktop support to light networking. As you scale, you need specialists who can manage specific functions like **Security Reviews**, project implementations, or dedicated account management.

### Key Roles in a Growing MSP
- **Level 1 Support:** The front line. They need speed, empathy, and the ability to follow SOPs accurately.
- **Level 2/3 Engineers:** The escalations team. They need deep diagnostic skills and the ability to mentor juniors.
- **Project Engineers:** These individuals focus on deployments. They need to be organised and capable of managing client expectations during transitions.
- **Account Managers / vCISO:** The commercial bridge. They don't need to be the most technical, but they must understand **risk and value**.

When Luis Navarro was growing Totality Services, he realised that he wasn't the "technical guy." His strength was sitting between the technical team and the client, translating bits and bytes into business impact. When you are **MSP hiring** for client-facing roles, you are looking for that same ability: the knack for making a client feel safe and understood without drowning them in jargon.

## The MSP Hiring Process: A Step-by-Step Framework
A haphazard interview process leads to "bad hires," and a bad hire in an MSP can cost up to three times their annual salary in lost productivity, client churn, and recruitment fees. You need a repeatable framework.

### Step 1: The Practical Screening
Do not rely on a conversation alone. A candidate might be great at talking about technology but struggle to implement it. Give them a short, practical test. For a Level 1 role, this might be a simulated ticket where they have to prioritise three different issues. For a senior role, it could be reviewing a mock network diagram and identifying security flaws.

### Step 2: The "Commercial Logic" Interview
Ask questions that reveal how they think about the business. For example: *"If a client asks for a shortcut that makes their system less secure but easier to use, how do you handle that conversation?"* You want to hear an answer that balances client satisfaction with the necessity of maintaining security standards. This is where **MSP hiring** separates the technical hobbyists from the professionals.

### Step 3: Cultural Alignment
MSPs are high-pressure environments. You need to know if the candidate can handle the pace without burning out or becoming toxic to the team. Ask about their favorite tools, how they stay updated on technology, and what they do when they realise they've made a mistake that affected a client. The best candidates take ownership; the worst ones point fingers at the client or the software.

### Step 4: The Shadowing Session
If possible, have the finalist spend two hours in your office. Let them sit with your current team. Observe how they interact. Do they ask intelligent questions? Do they seem overwhelmed by the ticket volume? This small investment of time can prevent a very expensive mistake.

## Onboarding: Where Most MSPs Fail
You’ve found the perfect candidate, they’ve signed the contract, and they show up on Monday. If you just hand them a laptop and say "start on the tickets," you have failed. Proper **MSP hiring** includes a structured 30-60-90 day onboarding plan. They need to learn *your* way of doing things, even if they have 20 years of experience elsewhere.

### The Onboarding Checklist
1. **Tooling Mastery:** Training on your PSA (Professional Services Automation) and RMM (Remote Monitoring and Management) tools.
2. **Documentation Standards:** Show them where the "source of truth" is and how to contribute to it.
3. **The Client "Who's Who":** A briefing on your top 10 clients, their quirks, and their specific business needs.
4. **Security Protocols:** Your internal MFA policies, password management, and how you handle sensitive data.

At MSP Agenda, we believe that [standardisation](#) is the key to profitability. If your new hire doesn't follow your standard operating procedures from day one, they will introduce variance that kills your efficiency. Onboarding is your chance to set the standard.

## Commercial Awareness in Technical Teams
One of the hardest parts of **MSP hiring** is finding technical people who understand that the MSP is a business that needs to be profitable. An engineer who spends six hours perfecting a script for a $100/month client without authorization is a liability, not an asset. They need to understand the concept of **billable utilisation** and the value of project work.

When your team understands the commercial side, they start to see opportunities. A Level 2 engineer might notice a client's server is reaching end-of-life and flag it to the Account Manager as a project opportunity. This isn't "selling"; it’s proactive service that protects the client and generates revenue for the MSP. This mindset is what Luis Navarro championed while scaling his business to a point where it became an attractive acquisition target.

## Common Challenges in MSP Hiring
The market for IT talent is incredibly competitive. You aren't just competing with other MSPs; you are competing with internal IT departments and large tech firms. To win, you have to offer something different.

### The Salary vs. Culture Debate
You might not always be able to pay the highest salary, but you can offer a better environment. Many engineers leave internal IT roles because they are bored. In an MSP, they will never be bored. Highlight the variety of work, the exposure to different technologies, and the career path from support to architecture or leadership.

### High Turnover Rates
Burnout is real in the MSP space. If your **MSP hiring** strategy is constantly active because people are leaving every 12 months, you don't have a hiring problem; you have a management problem. Ensure your team has the right tools to do their jobs effectively. Tools that reduce friction—like standardised **Security Reviews**—allow your team to focus on high-value work rather than tedious admin, which keeps them engaged.

## Using Metrics to Evaluate New Hires
How do you know if your **MSP hiring** was successful after six months? You look at the data. Most PSAs will give you the metrics you need, but you have to look at them in context.

| Metric | What it Tells You | The "Red Flag" |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Ticket Closure Rate** | General productivity and efficiency. | Consistently lower than team average. |
| **First-Time Fix Rate** | Technical accuracy and quality of work. | High closure rate but high "re-open" rate. |
| **Documentation Updates** | Commitment to team processes and scalability. | Zero or minimal updates to the internal KB. |
| **Client Feedback (CSAT)** | Soft skills and relationship management. | Consistent negative comments on communication. |

## Attracting Top Talent: Your Employer Brand
In **MSP hiring**, the best candidates are often already employed. To attract them, your MSP needs to look like a professional, growing organisation. This starts with your online presence but extends to how you conduct the interview. If you are late to the interview or don't have a clear job description, a high-quality candidate will assume your client service is just as disorganized.

Showcase your success. Mention your growth, your client retention rates, and your commitment to modern technology. If you use a structured approach to client management—like the one we advocate for at MSP Agenda—tell them about it. Engineers love working for companies that have their act together.

## The Role of Security in the Hiring Conversation
Cybersecurity is no longer a "niche" skill; it is a fundamental requirement. When you are **MSP hiring**, every candidate must be a "security-first" candidate. They need to understand that every ticket is a security opportunity. If they are setting up a new user, are they following the principle of least privilege? If they are fixing a VPN, are they checking for unauthorized access logs?

At MSP Agenda, we help MSPs move away from 40-page technical reports and toward clear, actionable **Security Reviews**. Your new hires should be able to support this transition. They should be able to look at a security vulnerability and explain why it matters to the client's bottom line. As Luis Navarro often says, a recommendation the client doesn't understand is unlikely to become a project. Your team needs to be the ones making those recommendations understandable.

---

Source: https://mspagenda.com/blog/msp-hiring
Last updated: 2025-12-02